Throughout this application, various publications are referenced. Disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
Super Interferon (hereafter, “rSIFN-co” or “SIFN-I”, an interferon having the therapeutic effect on solid tumors) has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,364,724 (Recombinant Super-Compound Interferon) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,585,647 (Nucleic Acid Encoding Recombinant Interferon), rSIFN-co is expressed from an engineered gene construct that encodes the same amino acid sequence as INFERGEN® (interferon alfacon-1), a consensus interferon alpha that was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,623. However, rSIFN-co is encoded by a novel nucleic acid sequence different from that encoding INFERGEN®. As compared to INFERGEN®, the rSIFN-co protein has a novel tertiary structure and has improved biological properties as well.
rSIFN-co also has a broader spectrum of biological activities as compared to INFERGEN®, including direct inhibitory effects on solid tumors as well as anti-viral activities, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,114,395, 8,287,852, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,425,896.